UH community joins clean up effort in historic neighborhood prior to 11th annual Discover Moiliʻili Day

Community volunteers will pick up trash, paint over graffiti and beautify their historic town at the 3rd annual Moiliʻili Clean-Up Day on Saturday, September 30, in preparation for the 11th annual Discover Moiliʻili Day the following Saturday, October 7.

Joel Elies, who is organizing the event for the Old Town Moiliʻili Business Association (OTMBA) says, "So many people talk about making our community better, but very few are willing to do something about it. I would like to see those who care about our ʻaina come out to the clean-up and prove it by spending a few hours working in the hot sun."

Linda Day, of the UH Office of Sustainability, is assisting Elies as part of the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa‘s support of the event. Day says, "Moiliʻili is like a diverse mixed-growth forest — buildings, businesses and people that are both wizened old trees generated from the deep roots of many cultures, and quirky new saplings from recent introductions.

"Past clean-up volunteers have included everyone from a retired Chinese immigrant who has lived in the neighborhood for half a century, to a sunburned college coed who just got off the plane from Missouri and is staying in a UHM dorm. This neighborhood has a lot of character."

Volunteers who want to participate in the clean-up are asked to come to Kalo Place Mini Park (at the end of Varsity Place off University Avenue) beginning at 8:00 a.m. this Saturday to receive gloves, tools and instructions. Free mahalo drinks and chili-rice bowls, music and a short ceremony to thank volunteers are all on the schedule at the conclusion of the clean-up back at the park at 12 noon.

Free parking for volunteers is available at Puck‘s Alley and on the UH Manoa lower campus (enter through Varsity Place gate).

The clean-up is supported by a partnership of community, government and business organizations, including OTMBA, Hope968, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, Kamehameha Schools, First Hawaiian Bank, Professional Image, ISIPaints/Dulux, Sodexho, Clear Channel, City and County of Honolulu, Ala Wai Watershed Association, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi, Moiliʻili Community Center, McCully-Moiliʻili Neighborhood Board, and the Parents and Friends of UH Manoa.